Who we are
Know more about our history, objectives and procedure
History
CEATL is an international non-profit association (AISBL) under Belgian law, officially created in 1993 as a platform where literary translators’ associations from different European countries could exchange views and information, and join forces to improve status and working conditions of translators. Set up by 10 founder members, CEATL has 34 member associations from 26 countries across Europe, representing some 10,000 individual literary translators.
Founding act of CEATL, January 1994
Literary translation?
As a literary translation we consider any translation of which the translator is the author in the legal sense, i.e. any translation that, as a text of its own, is protected by copyright law. The term ‘literary’ is used without any value judgement.
Aims and objectives
CEATL has two sets of aims, one internal and one external:
Disseminate information on literary translation
On the internal front we gather information on the situation of literary translation and translators in the member countries and share experiences and examples of best practice.
Defend the interests of translators
On the external front we defend the legal, social and economic interests of literary translators in a European context, which includes EU lobbying and reacting publicly to trends or events impacting on our profession and on the quality of literary translation. We help individual member associations to strengthen the position of literary translators in their countries.
Executive committee
The current board was elected by the General Assembly in Ljubljana on May 18, 2023
Francesca Novajra
President
Associazione Italiana Traduttori e Interpreti (AITI, Italy)
Valérie Le Plouhinec
General secretary
Association des traducteurs littéraires de France (ATLF, France)
Miquel Cabal Guarro
Treasurer
Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC, Catalonia)
Teodora Tzankova
Secretary
Syndicat des traducteurs de Bulgarie (BTU, Bulgaria)
Justyna Czechowska
Vice-President
Stowarzyszenie Tłumaczy Literatury (STL, Poland)
Iztok Ilc
Vice-President
Društvo slovenskih književnih prevajalcev (DSKP, Slovenia)
The delegates from the member associations come together once a year at the annual general meeting, which is hosted by the associations in rotation. The CEATL executive committee is made up of at least three elected members, who serve for two years and are eligible to re-election. The executive committee fulfils the mandates voted at the annual general meeting and undertakes the necessary actions to further CEATL’s aims.
Honorary members
The following people have been named honorary member of CEATL for their remarkable contribution to the association
Esther Benítez
Peter Bergsma
Jacqueline Carnaud
Françoise Cartano
Holger Fock
Martin de Haan
Iben Hasselbalch
Lara Hölbling Matkovič
Élisabeth Janvier
Gilbert Musy
Ros Schwartz
Manuel Serrat Crespo
Uta Szyszkowitz
Morten Visby
Shaun Whiteside
Françoise Wuilmart
Pavlos Zannas
Giuliana Zeuli